The twelve squad leaders in the meeting room were arguing.
Uchiha Yoru stopped outside and listened quietly for a few minutes. He soon discovered they were making a noisy fuss over nothing more than dormitory arrangements, bathing order, and the order of eating in the cafeteria.
Uchiha Yoru almost laughed.
Ever since he had connected with Uchiha Nobutada, he had not needed to worry about such tiny matters for a very, very long time. For a moment, he even felt these things were not worth fighting over.
But thinking carefully, after he limited the expansion of funds, the entire study group had entered an age of fighting over existing resources.
There would always be someone who wanted to take more. There would always be someone who unconsciously ate more when eating first. There would always be someone who deliberately used more hot water when bathing first.
If they did not fight, they could only eat cold food and take cold baths.
But after fighting for so long, even training discipline had collapsed, yet they still had not produced a winner or a strong faction. That proved these twelve ninja were all trash.
Uchiha Yoru sneered.
Since there was no talent among them, he could act without restraint.
Uchiha Yoru gently pushed open the meeting room door. Amid the creaking sound of the rusty hinge, he walked inside.
He did not look at anyone else. Instead, he lowered his head and looked at the hinge.
"Even the door hinge has rusted?"
Then Uchiha Yoru raised his head, looked at the twelve silent squad leaders, and said disdainfully, "Looks like a major cleaning is needed."
His hostility was so obvious that the twelve Uchiha were deeply provoked. They no longer had the slightest intention of being tactful.
One squad leader stood up, pointed at Uchiha Yoru, and said, "Who do you think—"
Boom!
That Uchiha squad leader vanished from where he stood. His rear smashed through the meeting room wall, and his entire body was embedded in the hole. His arms and legs bent together like a doll with a broken waist.
Not one squad leader saw how he had been sent flying.
No one knew how Uchiha Yoru had kicked him.
This time, they understood.
They understood just how vast the gap was between their strength and Uchiha Yoru's strength.
In an instant, all their fighting spirit disappeared.
A female squad leader stood up and shouted fiercely despite her fear, "My father is—"
Boom!
Uchiha Yoru showed no mercy at all. She, too, was embedded into a hole in the wall.
Then two Uchiha squad leaders turned around and rushed toward the window, trying to escape through it.
Just as they were about to crash into the glass, their bodies suddenly sank downward. They smashed deep pits into the floor and fainted inside them.
Now everyone was completely desperate.
They could not win. Yoru did not care about their backgrounds. They could not escape. The remaining eight squad leaders could only stand there trembling.
They looked at Uchiha Yoru in fear, not knowing how he would deal with them.
Seeing that they had all submitted, Uchiha Yoru finally sneered and said, "You're all cheap hides. Until a slap lands on your face, you don't know what pain is."
"Two people per group. Carry these four unlucky injured fools away, then get lost and go home."
"Let's see what result your complaints can get."
Of course, there was no result.
The Uchiha higher-ups had thrown all their attention onto Orochimaru. Orochimaru's relatively fair treatment alone was enough to make them ecstatic.
From the clan head to the three elders, they were almost obsessed.
Even Uchiha Setsuna had shut his mouth at this point. He no longer complained about Konoha being this or that. Instead, he was wholeheartedly trying to build a good relationship with Orochimaru.
The Uchiha higher-ups were running around busily for Orochimaru. How could they care about such a "minor matter" inside the study group?
As for the squad leaders who wanted to complain, they could not even meet those four people.
At this moment, the Uchiha clan still had three elders who had not participated in Orochimaru-related affairs, because Uchiha Yoru had persuaded them.
He said that no matter how much they did now, to Orochimaru it would only be icing on the cake. He would not remember it at all, and it would merely waste the clan's strength.
Then Uchiha Yoru used strict logic and irrefutable evidence to prove that conflict between the Third Hokage and Orochimaru was inevitable.
Therefore, they should wait and observe.
They should wait until the fiercest contradiction erupted, until the critical moment of master-disciple conflict, and then fully support Orochimaru.
That would be sending charcoal in the snow. It would definitely make Orochimaru feel it deeply and remember it clearly.
So in the Uchiha clan, the three elders who were not busy were all Uchiha Yoru's people. They had already been informed about the study group.
Those fools who stupidly ran to tattle not only failed to gain support, but were scolded viciously instead.
And that was still light.
Elder Uchiha Ryūnosuke had quite a temper. When one of his nephews came to him with his grand-nephew to plead, he immediately exploded, swung his fists, and beat the disappointing father and son.
Just like that, the twelve Uchiha squad leaders of the study group quietly withdrew from the study group.
Uchiha Yoru officially took over the Ninjutsu and Tactics Study Group.
Not only did he drive away all the squad leaders in one breath, he did not let off the punished members either.
After they struggled awake from their nightmares, those who could stand up on their own were allowed to remain. Those who suffered mental collapse were also driven away.
On the first day of taking over the study group, Uchiha Yoru had Uchiha Shisui, who was not even five years old, lead everyone through hard formation training.
The formation training continued for ten straight days.
From morning to night, aside from eating, bathing, and sleeping, every moment was spent training.
Strict rules were set for eating and bathing. If they could not finish eating in time, they went hungry. If they could not finish bathing in time, they endured it.
Even their eight hours of sleep were not peaceful.
From the third day onward, Uchiha Yoru began his extremely distinctive night raids.
Emergency assembly happened three times a night. Any Uchiha who failed to assemble within the time limit had to run laps.
Six days later, emergency assembly began to connect with ten-kilometer weighted cross-country runs. Only after finishing could they return to sleep. Those who ran too slowly simply got no sleep.
By the tenth day, Uchiha Yoru was surprised to discover that he had actually pushed a group of ninja to the edge of collapse.
After confirming that these ninja had truly reached their limit, Uchiha Yoru finally realized that these Uchiha ninja were actually children under eighteen.
Facing a group of children, he had no choice but to lower the training intensity. In the end, he did not dare continue high-intensity training for a full month.
He was truly afraid they would collapse for real.
Do not think ninja were truly extraordinary. Their personal strength was very powerful, but in terms of endurance, especially mental toughness, they were still inferior to a certain army of ordinary people.
At the end of the day, they were merely a group of children selected from within the Uchiha clan. Not only were they too young, but the screening range was also not large enough.
Most importantly, these children's spirits lacked depth. The force supporting their mental worlds was the pride inherited by the Uchiha clan.
It was too thin.
Along with the reduction in training intensity, Uchiha Yoru added internal affairs training.
No one resisted, and no one complained. Everyone obediently and seriously cleaned, folded bedding neatly, arranged toothbrushes in rows, kept the floor spotless, and made every door hinge smooth and silent.
In just over ten days, the study group was completely renewed.
The members were clearly dyed with a military atmosphere from another world, becoming entirely different.
After the most basic training goal was reached, Uchiha Yoru began teaching the three basic methods: Hundred Refinements Body Tempering Method, Cyclic Extraction Method, and Calm Mind Soul Tempering Method.
He fully updated the study group's previous teachings, replacing the scattered and unsystematic standing meditation and calm mind content with the complete cultivation methods certified by Uchiha Shisui.
Of course, these did not involve any immortal path content. They were only ninja cultivation methods.
Even so, the power of the new cultivation system was still terrifying.
By early September, batches of Sharingan began appearing. The study group's style rapidly shifted toward the appearance Uchiha Yoru was familiar with.
As work progressed quickly, Uchiha Yoru personally presided over the reorganization of the study group's members. Following the Tiger Unit's structure, he established four-man squads, seventeen-man platoons, and eighty-nine-man companies.
The study group had a total of 463 Uchiha children over twelve years old. They were organized into four companies and one separate platoon.
Uchiha Shisui was not placed within the structure. Uchiha Yoru treated him as his assistant, letting him cooperate in managing the entire study group, and continuously increased his workload.
Although this seemed suspiciously like using child labor, Uchiha Shisui was somewhat like the later Uchiha Itachi.
Shisui's mental maturity far exceeded his age. Especially after following Uchiha Yoru, his speed of maturing became even faster.
Such a genius could not be treated like an ordinary person. Responsibilities had to be assigned according to his mental age. Otherwise, he would gradually go astray through random overthinking.
Under Uchiha Yoru's teaching, Uchiha Shisui was still kind, but he definitely no longer had that pitiful and hateful innocence from the original story.
He no longer had that idiotic saintly heart of "you hurt me, but I still want to protect you."
The current Uchiha Shisui believed that if he wanted to protect those in Konoha who were hostile to him, the best method was to give them no chance to attack him. That way, they would not suffer fatal harm from his counterattack.
Although Uchiha Yoru's principle was different from Shisui's. When he encountered such an enemy, he would do what he had done to Root: find an opportunity and strangle them to death.
Once and for all. Everyone saved trouble.
But Uchiha Yoru did not oppose Shisui's idea. He even believed it was a very good way of thinking.
This was the thinking of a qualified Hokage. It was the correct method to unite the vast majority.
Uchiha Yoru's own method, at its root, had a problem of standpoint.
He had never treated Konoha as his hometown, nor did he have any intention of integrating into it.
If someone in Konoha was hostile to Uchiha Yoru, he would not hesitate to view them as an enemy, not as an internal contradiction. Therefore, he could act and eliminate them.
Uchiha Yoru knew himself very well, so he had no interest in the Hokage position.
On the contrary, Uchiha Shisui's dream was to become Hokage, so his choices were very different from Uchiha Yoru's.
That was why Uchiha Yoru chose to let go. Within the small circle he completely controlled, and within the range Uchiha Shisui could bear, Yoru continuously increased his responsibilities.
He let Shisui fully experience everything, while carefully protecting his heart and avoiding the tragedy of Uchiha Itachi.
As Uchiha Shisui worked hard, Uchiha Yoru shamefully obtained free time.
He put all his time into researching Edo Tensei. He summoned Senju Tobirama several times in a row and obtained many inspirations for improving Edo Tensei through him.
At first, Senju Tobirama refused.
But he was a test subject being held in someone's grasp. From beginning to end, Uchiha Yoru was extremely careful and did not leave Senju Tobirama the slightest chance to struggle.
Senju Tobirama had enough knowledge. He knew how to release Edo Tensei's control.
But Uchiha Yoru carefully selected every sacrifice and did not leave Lord Tobirama enough power to break free.
Senju Tobirama became furious.
The moment he regained consciousness, he would actively use ninjutsu, rapidly consuming that pitiful bit of chakra, then return to the Pure Land.
Uchiha Yoru had excellent patience.
He was tireless and persistent, repeatedly summoning him again and again, not caring about Senju Tobirama's resistance at all.
Even Dormammu had collapsed after being forced into an infinite time-loop negotiation by Doctor Strange. Senju Tobirama was only an outstanding ninja. How could he endure the torture of an infinite loop that even a god could not stand?
In the end, Senju Tobirama still submitted.
He no longer tried to resist, nor did he make any petty moves. He obediently helped Uchiha Yoru improve Edo Tensei.
At least when Uchiha Yoru's research made progress, he could obtain a period of quiet and peace.
"Honestly, my brain must have been broken back then. Why did I develop Edo Tensei? Now I can't even have peace after death."
Senju Tobirama lay limply on the ground.
This time, the sacrifice used for the summoning was a plucked chicken. Its chakra was pitifully low, leaving him with no strength at all.
No longer using humans as sacrifices was a very, very major improvement. Uchiha Yoru treasured it like a priceless discovery. At last, he no longer needed to sneak out at midnight to capture bandits and robbers.
Also, before every use of the technique, he had to carefully bleed the sacrifice to a precise amount, making them hover between dying and not dying, all to limit Senju Tobirama's strength.
During the bloodletting process, a person's psychological state had a huge influence. One careless mistake could kill them, forcing everything to start over.
Using animals as sacrifices for Edo Tensei made controlling vitality much easier.
A chicken was exactly the lower limit for Edo Tensei's summoning. If used sparingly, it was enough for Senju Tobirama to lie there weakly and move for three hours.
Hearing Senju Tobirama's complaint, Uchiha Yoru smiled and replied, "Second Hokage-sama, stop complaining. Who made you a genius at developing ninjutsu and forbidden techniques? When I have questions, I can only come to you."
"I can't possibly ask the First Hokage, right? No matter what I ask, I feel like he would say, 'Ah, just clap your hands, isn't that enough?' Am I wrong?"
Senju Tobirama thought back to how his elder brother learned ninjutsu. He would simply glance at a technique and instantly master it. Tobirama could not help recalling the despair he had felt back then, and for a moment, he was actually speechless.
After quite a while, Senju Tobirama finally recovered.
He smacked his lips and said, "Forget it. I can't control who you summon. But can't you use a better sacrifice?"
Uchiha Yoru immediately retorted, "Hey, you really can't blame me."
"Second Hokage-sama, you're famously full of schemes and tricks. For safety's sake, this is the only way."
Senju Tobirama: "…"
Uchiha Yoru moved Senju Tobirama aside, then began drawing sealing patterns on the floor. Soon, he drew an enormous sealing array.
Senju Tobirama observed carefully and quickly saw many details. He asked, "Oh? Brat, you actually have the flesh of an Ice Release ninja?"
Uchiha Yoru nodded and replied, "Yes. He was an outstanding Ice Release ninja, and also the clan head of the Yuki clan. He performed very brilliantly on the battlefield."
Senju Tobirama asked curiously, "Then how did you get his flesh? Also, how do you plan to make a Kirigakure ninja help you?"
Uchiha Yoru smiled. "Second Hokage-sama, you already know I won't use this technique for battle."
Senju Tobirama sneered. "Hmph. All your adjustments to Edo Tensei lean toward longer duration and sharper thinking. The result is so obvious. Of course I can tell."
Uchiha Yoru nodded, then answered his question. "I killed this ninja on the battlefield. His corpse fell into my hands."
"As for how to make him help me…"
Uchiha Yoru looked at Senju Tobirama and smiled wickedly. "You should understand that very deeply."
Senju Tobirama spat fiercely and said disdainfully, "Your methods are disgusting, but at the end of the day, I only reluctantly agreed because you are a Konoha ninja."
"If you were a rogue ninja, or even a Kumogakure ninja, see whether I would agree!"
Uchiha Yoru continued drawing without looking back and casually said, "Oh."
Senju Tobirama immediately exploded. "Oh, my ass!"
"The Yuki clan head must have been a pillar of Kirigakure. How could he abandon the hatred between villages and help you?"
Uchiha Yoru happened to finish the final stroke. Seeing Senju Tobirama bristle with anger, he laughed instead.
"Don't say that. Your white hair looks pretty good when it stands up."
Hearing this, Senju Tobirama flew into a rage and roared, "You're infuriating me to death!"
"You brat, just wait! You wait! You'll regret this!"
Uchiha Yoru realized he had truly angered him and quickly soothed him. "No, no, don't be angry. I said the wrong thing."
It took Uchiha Yoru great effort to calm Senju Tobirama down.
He even ignored the risk to himself and promised that the next time he summoned Tobirama, he would use a stronger animal as the sacrifice.
Uchiha Yoru understood that bickering with Senju Tobirama was fine, but he absolutely could not make Tobirama hate him.
After all, Tobirama was the main force helping Uchiha Yoru develop ninjutsu. That talent, that way of thinking, was completely unrestrained and imaginative.
If Yoru truly offended him, who knew where Tobirama would bury a trap for him?
Just thinking about that risk felt terrifying.
After obtaining quite a few benefits and hearing many nice, soft words, Senju Tobirama finally calmed down. He once again asked his previous question.
This time, Uchiha Yoru did not dare joke around. He answered seriously, "You know that Kirigakure is different from Konoha. Their internal division and conflict are extremely intense."
"Especially in the last six months, Kirigakure has restarted the 'Blood Mist Village' policy, and the Fourth Mizukage has aimed the spearhead at kekkei genkai clans. The contradiction has become sharper than ever before."
Senju Tobirama understood. He continued, "So you want to use clan interests as the topic and persuade the Yuki clan head to betray Kirigakure?"
Uchiha Yoru nodded, indicating that Tobirama was right.
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